Osprey - Pandion haliaetus

The female Osprey from the Cors Dyfi Nature Reserve in Wales. This Osprey has a white darvic ring with the numbers 03 on the right leg. Born at the Rutland reserve in 2008 and daughter of Rutland's most successful pair to date. Male (born 97) who was also ringed White 03 but on the left leg (since lost) and female (born 2000) ringed Green 05 who sadly failed to return in 2009.

Given her age it will be her first trip back from Africa. A real thrill to photograph her and a great success for Rutland and Cors Dyfi.

I took this picture with my 800mm f/5.6 and a 2x and 1.4x converters stacked together to give 2240mm. Tripod mounted on a Wimberley head, manual focus through live view and a cable release to trigger the shutter. While the quality isn't great it's sufficient to identify a darvic ring (about an inch long) from 300 metres. The image is uncropped.

Ref 5555